Applying for Surgical PA jobs as an FNP?

I'm an experienced OR nurse who has just graduated from a FNP program. I'm little unsure of what I want to do when I grow up. Part of me would love to stay in the OR environment and learn to first assist. Problem is as you all know, mostly PA's are hired for these types of jobs and not NPs. Considering my experience, does it make sense for me to apply to these jobs? Have any of you applied for PA jobs and gotten a response? Thanks..

I'm an experienced OR nurse who has just graduated from a FNP program. I'm little unsure of what I want to do when I grow up. Part of me would love to stay in the OR environment and learn to first assist. Problem is as you all know, mostly PA's are hired for these types of jobs and not NPs. Considering my experience, does it make sense for me to apply to these jobs? Have any of you applied for PA jobs and gotten a response? Thanks..

I'm an ACNP working as a Surgical NP in minimally invasive general/bariatric surgery. If you don't live in Texas, it's relatively easy to get started first assisting. Use your connections as a OR nurse, and find a surgeon that will take you on. If you don't have a lot of connections, you could send out CVs to all of the surgeons in your preferred specialty. That was how I got started, a friend of a friend, and so on. It's a lot of fun! Good Luck!

I got hired in Ortho Surgery as a first assist with my FNP background with no OR experience. But BostonFNP is right, I first got hired to work at Ortho Clinic so I spend 4/5 days at Clinic, preoping patients for surgery and then seeing postops. First assisting is about 30-40%.

We have a few NP's working in the surgical first position. Its a valuable place to be, because you can still preop and postop patients, make rounds, and do wound checks in the office, in addition to scrub, closing, and all the other little things that help surgeons keep moving.